14 Responses

When blood cells die, the red colour in them (which is called haemoglobin) is changed into yellow things(bilirubin). Your body gets rid of these in your wee (urine) and in your poo (brown). The yellow colour in wee is called urobilin, and the brown colour in poo is called stercobilin.

You can see exactly the same thing happening if you have a bruise – the blood in your skin starts off red and then becomes yellowy/brown.

The colour of your poo is a result of several things that are in it:
First, is the dead red blood cells your body wants to get rid of. (It is actually a chemical called billirubin that is made when red blood cells are broken down that helps to give poo its colour). The second colour giving part is bile. Bile is produced by your liver to help digest fat and get rid of bilirubin. Finally is the food you eat… You may have noticed that different food can change the colour of your poo. I find tomatoes are quite good at this!

Jennifer… I guess at 9yrs old… this is an interesting question that should have a simple answer. So I’m going to try to do that based on what Becky and Mike have said.

When something like the food you eat goes from New to Old, it changes color. You may have noticed this change of color in fruit or any other food item when left to become old. Inside your body are waste products (or unwanted material; garbage) which has also gone from new to old and thus has changed color as well. The color change is brown for most foods and waste.

This old and brown colored waste is what exists in your poo that create its final color.

Your poo is brown because of the accumulation of used-up red blood cells that are excreted by your body, along with oxidized bile from your liver and gall bladder. Poo isn’t always brown all the time. Notice that in general, poo tends to be brownish, ranging from light brown to dark brown, depending on your diet. Having said that, don’t try to adjust your diet so you can poop flouresent green or something like that. If your poop is glowing, you better get to a real doctor right away.

Eating a lot of orange food will not make you poop orange. Sometimes eating lots of vegetables high in iron might make your poop take on a greenish tinge.

I think the answers are very interesting. i was at an exibition with my mum about infections recently and how we get them. i have a question please. why is snot green and how come our bodies make mucus? i am not asking this to be rude – i asked my mum the question about poo last night so we decided to look it up on the internet.

katie age 11
ps. i’ve just had mt tonsils out. why do we need them anyway and can i get infections if i don’t have tonsils?

well my mum told me that when you eat sweetcorn it doesent dijest and your poo is just filled with sweetcorn and your poo well becomes yellow and brown together. and you can see whole sweetcorn . eeewww! i have always wanted to know why poo is brown and i still dont understand i just think its because its all the waste goes together and mixes to brown? well i wanna know why sweetcorn in a simple way doesent dijest in your insides. TOODLEEPOOOOPPP